Nowadays, mobile telephones may be used not only for telephone conversation between users but also for sending and receiving messages (e.g. SMS, MMS, . . . ).
Some telephone operators have already thought to use the messaging technologies to provide information to the users.
For example, TIM [Telecom Italia Mobile] sends news to subscribers through SMS or MMS messages using information provided by ANSA, a press agency; different predefined news services are provided dedicated to different kinds of news. These services provide to transmit some SMS or MMS messages to a subscriber every day up to a predetermined maximum number; messages are transmitted according to the internal service logic.
From patent application WO 2004/036458, there is known a method of presenting media content to a user or group of users wherein the media content resides on a storage system. The method comprises the steps of: (a) defining a query to retrieve the media content, which query is appropriate for the user's situation by using context information, (b) retrieving the queried media content from the storage system, and (c) resending the queried media content to the user or group of users.
From patent application US 2002/103908, there is known a system and method for enabling users to send and receive messages and other information from mobile devices and enabling users to access server-based information using mobile devices over wireless data networks. The system and method enable users to customize information that is received and sent from mobile devices. For example, the user may select to receive emails (or other correspondences) from a particular individual or group of individuals. The user may also select to receive a particular type or types of emails (or other correspondences), such as the ones marked as high priority or otherwise designated as being important. In addition, the user may customize responses, replies and other outgoing information from the user's mobile device. Mobile device users may also customize various aspects of views and applications. Examples of customizable options include home page, time zone, date format, font format, language.
From patent application WO 2004/095794, there is known a client-server system and method wherein multimedia service contents are provided to user terminals in a wireless communication network, such as a GPRS or UMTS network, by generating delivery packets that convey both the multimedia service contents and a corresponding service logic. These delivery packets are received and interpreted by means of an interpreter at the user terminals (client) to obtain presentation of the multimedia service contents and the interaction level between client and server according to the corresponding service logic. The multimedia contents can thus be presented interactively at the terminal, while new services can be designed on the server side and made available to the user terminals without modifications being required on the terminal side.